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It is widely acknowledged that DSM-III represented a paradigm shift in psychiatric classification (Blashfield 1984; Decker 2007; Mayes and Horwitz 2005; Wilson 1993). Klerman (1984 p. 539) called the publication of DSM-III in 1980 “a fateful point in the history of the American psychiatric profession.” DSM-III marshaled the use of operationalized diagnostic criteria for the definitions of its mental disorders, removed the influence of untested etiological hypotheses from its organizational structure in favor of a descriptive “atheoretical approach,” and reframed the biopsychosocial model in...

It is widely acknowledged that DSM-III represented a paradigm shift in psychiatric classification (Blashfield 1984; Decker 2007; Mayes and Horwitz 2005; Wilson 1993). Klerman (1984 p. 539) called the publication of DSM-III in 1980 “a fateful point in the history of the American psychiatric profession.” DSM-III marshaled the use of operationalized diagnostic criteria for the definitions of its mental disorders, removed the influence of untested etiological hypotheses from its organizational structure in favor of a descriptive “atheoretical approach,” and reframed the biopsychosocial model in terms of a multiaxial approach to diagnosis. As will be explicated in this paper, none of these innovative ideas arose de novo as a result of the DSM-III developmental process. Instead, the main innovation of DSM-III was its adoption of ideas which had previously been tested and found to be useful in research settings, into a manual of mental disorders designed primarily for clinical use.